IBM’s Disaster Response in Peru – Part 1

I finally decided to blog my thoughts and experiences as a corporate “sponsored” volunteer for the humanitarian open source project Sahana. I’ve not yet said anything publicly regarding my experiences which included providing disaster recovery assistance to the Peruvian government in response to the ~8.0 earthquake which struck the cities of Pisco and Ica in mid-August 2007. In hindsight, I probably should have been journaling & blogging the experience as it was happening, but much of the lessons learned are still fresh in my mind and no less poignant for broader discussions on disaster preparedness and corporate social responsibility.

Because this is such multi-faceted experience, I’ve decided to break it down into a series of posts. The following is a list of issues/topics which I’ll cover as time permits:

• Humanitarian OpenSource & Corporate Volunteerism – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!
• IBM’s On Demand Community and Related Efforts
• Disaster Strikes in Peru
• IBM’s Response To The Peruvian Quake
• Assembling The Team
• Assessing The Damage
• Coordinating With The Government
• Make Nice With A Nemesis – Microsoft’ies In The Mix
• The Solution – A Victim-Centric Sahana Installation
• The Agenda – 4AM to 2AM Each Day, Yikes!
• Following up – Long Term Support
• Manager Myopia and What-Have-You-Done-For-Me-Lately-itis …
• The Need For Corporate Volunteerism Now More Than Ever & Why Milton Friedman is Just Plain Wrong.
• Lessons Learned From Activities in Peru, NYC, and Elsewhere.
• Leaving IBM For Greener Pastures :OP

Married and finally home

Thought I’d make a quick initial post… Sarah and I got back home from Tucson early yesterday afternoon. The wedding was awesome and I don’t think we could have asked for anything more. A thousand mile road trip may not have been the best way to spend our first day of the marriage, but was needed in order to make it to class yesterday evening … which, incidentally, I skipped because I was much too tired to bother.:O/ But despite having to drive through the night, it was nice to have time to reflect on the previous day’s events and also to look through some of the loot (wedding cards, presents, etc).
– wedding pics

Good enough for a first post I think … plus I have a few hundred e-mails and a boat load of work to catch up on from being out for nearly a week!:O)